LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Friday

Jul 30, 2010 at 2:00 AM

We Upper Rogue dwellers sometimes feel that we are out of the Medford loop of interest. The story that Vera Westbrook reported for the Mail Tribune on the Upper Rogue Community Center's new cistern really impressed and pleased so many of us locals.

We Upper Rogue dwellers sometimes feel that we are out of the Medford loop of interest. The story that Vera Westbrook reported for the Mail Tribune on the Upper Rogue Community Center's new cistern really impressed and pleased so many of us locals.

Most of Shady Cove is on a well system. We are striving and have been for years to bring water to Shady Cove, so this project for the community center brings alive an old concept with a new twist for water quality and conservation. As a showpiece for the community, we can all watch for the new rain year anticipating how this system will work. Thank you for the coverage and come again to see how this project pans out for the center. — Dee Hawkins, Shady Cove

The graph in your July 23 story maintains that "The rich carry the (income) tax load."

Fairness and accuracy demand that it be made clear that the rich (the top 5 percent) also take in the most money and, importantly, those rich get most of their income as capital gains, taxed at the rate of 15 percent. Let's leave to one side for the moment that the top 5 percent reflexively hide much of their income in ways that are "Perfectly Legal," the title of David Cay Johnston's expose on "The covert campaign to rig our tax system to benefit the super rich — and cheat everybody else."

Billionaire Warren Buffet did his own analysis and discovered that, when all taxes such as income, sales, property, payroll (Social Security), etc., are included, his secretarial staff paid at a tax rate equal to his own rate. His reaction: "If there is class warfare, my side is winning."

Our economy needs help, our people need jobs, we need to pay down our deficits: Tax the richest, starve the Pentagon, use the money to create a better economy. And get the hell out of Afghanistan and Iraq. Yeah, right. Lots of luck with all of that. — Gerald Cavanaugh, Ashland

Mark W. Bowen's assumption that most of Barack Obama's supporters voted for him simply because he's black says more about Bowen's own prejudiced perspective than it says about anyone else's alleged reverse racism. I could just as easily say that most of John McCain's supporters voted for him because he wasn't black, but I would have no way of knowing, and neither does Mark W. Bowen.

Some liberals do make a similar accusation of reverse racism regarding the appointment of R.N.C. Chairman Michael Steele. This accusation, also unproven, is equally unnecessary. — Anthony Nelson, Ashland

I sure would like to see a light on the American flag above the Jacksonville Museum at night. Respect our veterans, respect the symbol of our country. — Robert Geer, Jacksonville

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